Bat again,Wrongman: If I register a branch of my business in Bulgaria/Croatia/Hungary/wherever I can run into this Country ad-infinitum,as long as the truck leaves the country every now and again. What you refer to is called,"cabotage",and the rules on that were/are in the process of being relaxed....just for your info,the EU bribed all the Eastern Europeans with help to modernise their transport fleets using EU taxpayers money,so that East European hauliers can undercut Western European hauliers as they have(a) the latest equipment on the cheap-cheap,and (b) pay fuck all in wages. So when you see all those Easty Beasties wearing out British roads,(until recently paying sweet fark-all for the privilege),rest assured it's driven down the wages of vast swathes of German/French/British truck drivers in the process,you can thank Boris and his mates for assisting in the process.That old Law of Unintended Consequences again... If you live in London,well done,the multi-millionaire Eton-educated Latin spouter is your air-headed friend. If you bring shit into London,for all the theatre shows/corporate conferences/Harrods/Fortnum and Masons shopping you enjoy,the man is an idiot. Look forward to nowhere to stop,parking tickets at 3am,taking the shortest recommended route landing you with a £1000 fine because some arsehole has dug the road up and you took the signed diversion. That is without,of course,the big sign: "Cyclists welcome!Wear headphones so you can't hear! Ride like a twat!...And please put yourself in as much danger as you can because we WILL prosecute the Truckie for not being able to look in his in his seven mirrors all at the same time!....(...you will be dead,but don't worry about that,the truckie will be inside...)" Personally,I'd rather he banned trucks from inside the M25 completely. The the Londoner could pay for 20 Transits and their drivers to bring the same amount of stuff in as one of my artics does....that would make you squirm,I promise ya.. No offence meant,of course
Fords stance on the issue... Sent: 23 September 2015 11:46 To: The Ford of Europe Team Subject: Going Further the Right Way With the worldwide headlines generated by Volkswagen AG’s admission that it misled regulators on diesel emission tests, some of you have asked for Ford’s position on this issue and whether we could be affected. When a major company in our industry has this type of issue, it can raise questions about the entire industry – and our customers, our teams and all other stakeholders understandably want to know where Ford stands. So let me be absolutely clear. We do not use “defeat devices” and we do not deliberately mislead the public, regulators or investors. Our award-winning vehicles and engines meet all applicable emissions standards in Europe. We agree that emission standards need to more closely incorporate the real-world driving that customers typically experience on the road under normal conditions.That’s why we have supported the development of a European Real Driving Emissions initiative going into law in Europe as part of the Euro 6 standards. There is nothing more valuable to Ford than our reputation for operating ethically and legally. It’s the bedrock of our company and one of the reasons we have been in business successfully for more than 100 years. Ford was recently named to Ethisphere Institute’s 2015 list of World’s Most Ethical Companies. We were the only automaker named on the prestigious list for six consecutive years. The honor is based on top ratings in five categories: ethics and compliance, culture of ethics, governance and leadership, innovation and reputation. Over the coming days and weeks, as the investigations continue, there will be significant coverage about diesel emissions across the industry and about standards in testing. We also will make sure that we clearly communicate Ford’s position on our diesel technology and our testing procedures. Ford also will cooperate – as we always do – with any inquiries into industry practice that arise as a result of the VW situation. I remain absolutely confident in our technology, our diesel innovation and in our corporate integrity. We should all be proud to work for a company that is committed to doing business the right way and I want to thank each of you for doing all you can individually and as a team to maintain the highest standards. Jim Farley
US authorities are rather noticeably inclined to levy huge fines on European companies like BP and VAG, aren't they? Surely the EU would not have to look too hard to find reasons for levying similar huge fines on American companies like Google, Amazon or Apple. Purely in the interests of fairness, of course.
It's serious news and seriously bad news for VW and shareholders there on in. Criminal investigations in multiple countries, German government forced into statements, shares plummet, massive fines... The 6.5Bn Euro fund they ringfenced to pay for the fraud is expected to be falling short. They've hired BP's lawyers. There will be impact throughout the group.
It's big all right. But maybe not that big. Apparently VAG has total assets of 351 Billion euros and an annual turnover of 200 Billion Euros.
But only about 5% of that turnover is operating profit. According to some figures I just looked at, their recent year's profits were just under €11bn. If they've set aside €6.5bn to meet fines and liabilities etc, that's over half their annual profit gone in one fell swoop, or at least unavailable until this mess sorts itself out one way or the other. Not to mention the effect on their share price (what pension fund manager will touch VAG shares for the foreseeable future?), the tarnishing of their brand identity and the negative knock on effect this will have on goodwill, sales and profits in years to come. For example, companies these days are obsessed with their environmental credentials (which in my view are usually wholly specious and insincere gestures/marketing ploys, but anyway) and so when it's time for them to renew their fleet of delivery vans or company cars or whatever, I imagine that VW group vehicles will be pretty low on their list. VAG vehicles could be viewed as a toxic potential PR disaster and end up being shunned. I think this will have a massive effect and could easily result in VAG selling off its "luxury" brands such as Ducati and Lamborghini to raise some cash, or just retreating back into their core business of concentrating on making reliable and quite stylish saloons, hatchbacks and light commercial vehicles. Having said all that, my guess is that just as we saw in the various banking scandals, every manufacturer will have been at it to some extent and if that's the case, they may not suffer as much as they may have done if they turn out to be the only naughty ones.
Why all the fuss? Every manufacturer has tweaked their engines to pass emission checks since emission tests were first introduced. Every vehicle from every manufacturer is specifically tuned to be at it most efficient at the testing speeds for each country, or state and for fuel consumption figures, even if they run inefficiently at any other speed outisde that narrow range - so what's different? The advent of programmable software and ECUs has made it possible to frig more efficiently, that's all.
Sent: 23 September 2015 11:46 To: The Ford of Europe Team Subject: Going Further the Right Way With the worldwide headlines generated by Volkswagen AG’s admission that it misled regulators on diesel emission tests, some of you have asked for Ford’s position on this issue and whether we could be affected. When a major company in our industry has this type of issue, it can raise questions about the entire industry – and our customers, our teams and all other stakeholders understandably want to know where Ford stands. So let me be absolutely clear. We do not use “defeat devices” and we do not deliberately mislead the public, regulators or investors. Our award-winning vehicles and engines meet all applicable emissions standards in Europe. We agree that emission standards need to more closely incorporate the real-world driving that customers typically experience on the road under normal conditions.That’s why we have supported the development of a European Real Driving Emissions initiative going into law in Europe as part of the Euro 6 standards. There is nothing more valuable to Ford than our reputation for operating ethically and legally. It’s the bedrock of our company and one of the reasons we have been in business successfully for more than 100 years. Ford was recently named to Ethisphere Institute’s 2015 list of World’s Most Ethical Companies. We were the only automaker named on the prestigious list for six consecutive years. The honor is based on top ratings in five categories: ethics and compliance, culture of ethics, governance and leadership, innovation and reputation. Over the coming days and weeks, as the investigations continue, there will be significant coverage about diesel emissions across the industry and about standards in testing. We also will make sure that we clearly communicate Ford’s position on our diesel technology and our testing procedures. Ford also will cooperate – as we always do – with any inquiries into industry practice that arise as a result of the VW situation. I remain absolutely confident in our technology, our diesel innovation and in our corporate integrity. We should all be proud to work for a company that is committed to doing business the right way and I want to thank each of you for doing all you can individually and as a team to maintain the highest standards. Jim Farley
A motor industry spokesman on Radio 4 this morning suggested cars are selected randomly from the production line in Europe & are then tested under different conditions more akin to their intended use on the roads. According to the spokesman, this means the 'special test' software wouldn't be used under the above circumstances.
So if they don't need the special test software to pass the test, why do they have it? I can only think it's to produce impressive scores which look better than the competition. And that really wasn't worth the candle, was it? From everything I have seen and heard and read, the EU tests are still nothing like real road use and the fuel consumption figures recorded cannot be achieved in the real world. But I may be confusing things here: there are emissions tests, and then fuel consumption tests which are surely supplied by the manufacturer to make their advertising look good.
I don't quite understand all the fuss. I thought it was common knowledge cars never match quoted emissions/efficiency anyway whether diesel, petrol or even hybrid! As has already been said manufacturers deliberately map vehicles fueling to meet emissions regs only at the designated test speeds/revs not real road driving. I'm sure this "news" is simply going to drag all other manufacturers into also being exposed as doing exactly the same. Owners of the BMW i8 are already up in arms at finding their mpg as being around a third what quoted figures in the brochures told them. Bikes could also come under the spotlight as they do exactly the same, largely being the reason for having flappy valves in the exhaust which come into play around the noise/emissions test regs as we all know. Also bike manufacturers even go on sell aftermarket exhausts and even re-maps/ecu's as accessories which I'm sure wouldn't pass those tests if they were standard!
Indeed. Most or all the world's manufacturers will probably turn out to have done much the same, or possibly worse (bribing whoever runs the test to sign off the certificate, anybody?). VAG may yet turn out to be in less trouble than some others.
Fuel consumption tests are done on indoor rolling roads, so no wind resistance :Wideyed:, with, as has been previously mentioned, lean fuel settings at the test speeds.
The whole thing with emissions/noise/efficiency test compliance is a fudge, a box ticking farce and, basically, a massive fraud on the public perpetrated by both the regulators and the motor industry, who both present themselves as making motoring greener and more efficient when in fact the former simply sets an artificial and unrealistic series of hoops for the latter to jump through
Ford: "... our customers, our teams and all other stakeholders understandably want to know where Ford stands. So let me be absolutely clear. We do not use “defeat devices” and we do not deliberately mislead the public, regulators or investors. Our award-winning vehicles and engines meet all applicable emissions standards in Europe." Yeah, right. What is the betting they will be rowing back from this statement within months, or maybe within days?
